Hunger drives parents to eat their own in North Korea

Amidst reports of famine and drought, there are stories of desperation from North Korea, especially of a man executing his two children for food.

LONDON: Latest reports emanating from North Korea tell a shocking tale about North Koreans murdering their own children for food as the famine-hit nation's food shortage has gone from bad to worse.

Amidst reports of famine and drought, there are stories of desperation from North Korea, especially of a man executing his two children for food.

Reports from citizen journalists inside North Korea portrays a grim picture. These startling reports were compiled by independent reporters commissioned by Asia Press, a independent press agency focusing on Asia, and were published by the Sunday Times.

"In my village in May, a man who killed his own two children and tried to eat them was executed by a firing squad," the daily quoted an informant as saying.

The informant said the man killed his eldest daughter while his wife was away on business and then killed his son because he had witnessed the murder.

When his wife returned, the man told her they had meat. But she became suspicious and contacted officials.

A terrible famine in North Korea has killed up to 10,000 people.

According to undercover reporters from Asia Press, one man dug up his grandchild's corpse and ate it. Another boiled his own child for food, the report said.

People in the farming provinces of North and South Hwanghae are battling starvation after a drought. Shortages were compounded by party officials who reportedly confiscated food.

North Korea was hit by a famine in the 1990s -- known as the Arduous March -- which killed between 240,000 and 3.5 million people.

Jiro Ishimaru from Asia Press which compiled a 12-page report, said: "Particularly shocking were the numerous testimonies that hit us about cannibalism."

Undercover reporters said food was confiscated from the two provinces and given to the residents of the country's capital Pyongyang.

In a village in Chongdan county, a man "who went mad with hunger boiled his own child, ate his flesh and was arrested", said an official of the ruling Korean Worker's party.

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